Increasingly, individuals use mobile/portable computing devices to view their personal information online. For example, individuals use their smartphones, tablets, phablets, etc., to access online bank accounts containing account numbers, account balances and/or credit card numbers, online insurance accounts/policies containing policy numbers, coverage levels and/or social security numbers, and so on. Typically, all information is presented on the screen of the computing device in the same manner once a user is authenticated (e.g., enters a login and password), even though the user may only need to see the sensitive portions of the information for a relatively brief time period. As a result, other individuals in the vicinity of the user may easily see the sensitive information, increasing the risk of unauthorized use of the information (e.g., identity theft). Moreover, the size of the computer screens on which information is displayed to mobile users (e.g., tablet, phablet or smartphone touch screens) have generally been increasing in size, which may cause the displayed information to be larger and more easily seen by others in the vicinity of the screen, and/or may cause more sensitive information to be displayed at one time. Furthermore, the proliferation of camera devices (e.g., smartphone cameras) increases the risk that someone will capture an image of a display screen, and later view the image to identify any sensitive information contained therein.
Some conventional techniques require physically positioning a filter or lenticular film over a laptop computer screen such that information on the screen may only be read within a narrow viewing angle. Other conventional techniques do not require purchasing and positioning a physical filter or film, but have other drawbacks. For example, some applications allow a user to hide his or her password by replacing the typed password characters with asterisks or other characters/shapes (e.g., “•••••”), and further allow the user to selectively show or hide the password characters by clicking a virtual control box located next to the password field. These conventional techniques generally fail to provide a security mechanism that is user friendly. For example, the technique for hiding passwords described above requires that the user locate and activate a dedicated control positioned near the password field on the display (e.g., a clickable “SHOW” or “HIDE” text in the vicinity of the password field). As a result, the user may forget or otherwise neglect to obscure sensitive information after viewing. Moreover, the conventional techniques are restricted to hiding/showing the single field associated with the control (i.e., the password field).